How to Run a 4:30 mile within a year

High School Running High School Training

1 year ago 05/20/2022 10:21pm EDT

Hi, I am a sophomore in high school and looking for tips and advice for running a 4:30 mile along with any useful training plans and workouts. Also any advice for summer training would be beneficial as well such as how many miles per week I should be aiming for, how fast I should run them, and things like that. I really want to get serious about running and any advice is appreciated.

Here are some of my PR's for context:

4:53 - 1600m

2:07 - 800m

58 - 400m (I ran it as the anchor of a 4x400 after I ran the 1600m maybe 30 minutes prior so I think I could've gone faster)

Also I know going from 4:53 to 4:30 is a big jump but I'm willing to dream big and put in the work. Thanks.

1 year ago 05/21/2022 5:20am EDT

re: Breese

Just stay the course & listen to what your coaches tell you. The speed seems decent at 400/800. You should be under 4:40 with those times. Gonna have to get down to ~2-flat to have a shot a sub-4:30.

Like most HSers, strength is a limiting factor. Forget about the mile this summer & get into a base building block. If you're used to 30-40 miles/week, make 40 consistent & build to 50. Forget the mile/VO2 workouts. Do 1 tempo/threshold workout each week. Do strides a few times a week. Do a good long run. Keep the easy miles easy. Keep the long runs easy unless you have planned quality (tempo at projected marathon pace every other or every third weekend). Get strong. Carry that into the cross season, where you'll start ripping faster workouts. Make some improvements at 5k. Then you'll be a more complete runner for indoor/outdoor track & can go after those faster mile times.

1 year ago 05/21/2022 6:15am EDT

re: NERunner03533

Great post by NERunner, I’d agree with just about everything they said. The only thing I’d add is don’t get discouraged if you can’t get the 800 to 2:00, if you get enough endurance a 4:30 is definitely achievable with a 2:05 or so. Also, 4:53 to 4:30 is big, but I’ve seen bigger jumps made. Especially from sophomore to junior year.

1 year ago 05/21/2022 6:33am EDT

re: LettuceEater

But yeah also whats your previous mileage and longer event prs like?

1 year ago 05/21/2022 8:16am EDT

re: Breese

I love the enthusiasm but really the secret is that there is no secret. I agree with NE Runner. Forget shorterm goals, no way to force it. The key is consistency, and a long term approach which requires a lot of patience. Slowly up your mileage but focus on base season for the fall. Really it's just days, weeks, and months strung together and most of the time it can be monotonous and sometimes boring. But that's it really, stay consistent, run more, run more often, and forget the very hard interval workouts for awhile while you work on base.

When you go into the season you'll be very strong, ready to tackle harder workouts, and with a little luck, be able to hit 4:30.

When I was in high school, I went from 10:50s and 4:50s sophomore year to 9:50s and low 4:30s Jr year. The main thing that changed was more running, more often, over the off season. Lots of easy running and some tempo and strides thrown in.

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